Open Writeups
Sunday
By Elliot Erickson
As Sunday morning rolled in at the Youth Club Championships, conditions were generally the same as Saturday. A straight crosswind from the North in the morning died away during the finals, and the heat returned for another blistering day.
Quarters
The day started right away early with quarters, and each team still had a chance at the championship. In a crossover setting, top seeds in the two pools faced the opposite fourth seeds, and the second and third seeds crossed over as well.
The top seed of the tourney Seattle faced Madison, and No.2 New England (BUDA) played Cincinnati. True to form, the favorites rolled in the quarters.
New England’s 1-3-3 wall zone produced quick turnovers, leading them to a 15-0 victory. Seattle’s shut down man defense and big hucks led them to an easy victory as well.
Yet, close games and surprises arrived right away in the 2-3 Quarter games. New Jersey, taking the second seed over Colorado in the B Pool, met Minnesota. And Colorado clashed with Pittsburgh
New Jersey came out early against Minnesota with their characteristic vertical stack, and looked to work the disc up the break side. New Jersey’s Alexander Padget and Minnesota’s Ben Feldman matched up well and both got strong D’s as well as great offensive looks.
After a 5-2 start by New Jersey, Minnesota began to make a run of their own, which was capped by cutter Alex Severson’s end zone grab off a tipped disc. Minnesota has scored six in-a-row to take a 8-6 halftime lead.
Minnesota’s zone helped spark the long run, which continued in the second half, and New Jersey cannot recover. At 10-6, Minnesota held on for a 10-8 upset.
The second 2-3 quarterfinal, Colorado versus Pittsburgh, brought out some tremendous play on both sides. Colorado, coming off a close loss to New Jersey in pool play, tried to tone down their huck-happy offense; they succeeded in that but still continued to actively look for the deep threat.
Keeping close in the opening moments of the game, Pittsburgh and Colorado pulled even at 4-4. Besides an occasional longer point, both teams started clean and kept turnovers to a minimum.
While the game was close, Pittsburgh continued to keep an early lead, but whenever they tried to pull away, Colorado came up with a big play. At 6-4 Pittsburgh, Colorado’s Alexander Hill foot-blocked a Pittsburgh handler near the goal line, and Kevin Lewis grabbed the Callahan to tighten the game to 6-5.
As the game wore on, Colorado went back looking for more deep looks, which #10 Hylke Snieder continued to grab out of the air.
Even as Colorado continued to hang around, Pittsburgh came up with great plays to hold them off. Pittsburgh’s Chris Lippert forced a turnover and laid out for a big score to put Pittsburgh up two, 11-9.
With the points being long, hard cap ended the game at 12-10, Pittsburgh.
Semifinals
With Minnesota advancing over New Jersey, the hosting state was set to play Seattle in one semifinal game with New England and Pittsburgh battling in the next.
As the games began, Minnesota pulled against Seattle and immediately set a four-person cup, which Seattle immediately broke with a quick score.
Not long into the game, Seattle was showing why they were the dominate team, outplaying Minnesota, with clean play and disc movement. Seattle’s Julian Childs-Walker laid out for a zone D deep in Minnesota’s territory that highlights a 5-0 opening run.
“We really stuck to our Ultimate [today]- quick and fast,” said Seattle handler Casey Ikeda.
Ikeda along with the rest of Seattle’s handler core kept the disc extremely active, which opened up scoring opportunities.
Minnesota’s lone goal arrived with Ben Feldman connecting to cutter Sam Brickwedde later in the first half. Final 15-1.
In the second semifinal game, New England looked to find their way into the finals as well but had a tough Pittsburgh team looking for an upset.
Pittsburgh handler Alex Thorne knew they had a tough challenge ahead.
“Solid team,” Thorne said, “We plan on fronting them and hopefully get their hucks caught into the wind.”
New England started as well with a zone, and both teams traded points early.
Either taking the deep look or finding cutters open under, New England was content to take what they were given by the Pittsburgh defense. And, handler Andrew Lunetta was ready to stretch the field with deep looks to teammate David Baecher.
As Pittsburgh had some first half trouble against the zone, New England took an 8-4 half lead.
Pittsburgh dabbled in zone for some points, but New England’s handlers continued to show characteristic patience looking for popper Alex Kapinos in the middle of the field.
In the end, New England’s patience and athletic play opened up a slightly comfortable lead and they go on to win 15-7.
Final
Playing out their seeds, Seattle and New England found their way into a highly anticipated final.
With many of these teams this tournament being a mesh of talent from around each teams region, team chemistry became a valued commodity, something that both Seattle and New England had.
Seattle coach Mike Mullen noted how this tournament contained many all-star teams.
“The team that gets on the same page is the team that wins,” he said.
Minnesota showed some great team chemistry at the end, which helped them to win a thrilling comeback third place game against Pittsburgh before the final started, 17-15.
As the championship game loomed near, the wind continued its steady crosswind breeze but died away by the second half.
Both teams started with tough man defense to open the game. Intensity was high as the two top teams traded points in the early stages of the game. Neither team could sustain a run as other team’s offense efficiently worked a score down the field.
Even as Seattle grabbed a 4-2 lead, New England took advantage of a defensive miscue, finding cutter Patrick Roberts wide open deep, leading to a score.
New England went back to zone, which had helped produce turnovers all weekend, and it succeeded again even as the wind is dying down for a 4-4 tie.
This final game started relatively clean, with most of the turns coming from deep looks that cannot connect. As it has been all tournament, Seattle’s shutdown man defense bothered New England and forced turnovers amongst their handlers.
Seattle took advantage of good field position and scored as they tried again to open up the score.
As New England tried to look big up field in return, Seattle’s Matt Rehder pleased the crown with a huge leap in near the end zone to steal a potential score. Seattle takes the turnover and eventually scores to take half 8-5.
To insure there would be no momentum change, Seattle takes the first point with a Callahan by Julian Childs-Walker.
Consistent with the first half, Seattle’s defense is suffocating at times; however, some end zone impatience caused them to give the disc back to New England. For a moment, Seattle’s deep throws begin to float – a possible sign of fatigue – but Seattle returns to some great handler movement to open up a commanding lead.
Casey Ikeda for Seattle leads a core of defensive handlers that exploit New England’s turnovers with excelling speed and quick throws. Along with great defensive plays by Seattle’s Matt Rehder and Milo Snyder, Seattle opens up a 13-9 lead. With soft cap on, it is game to 15.
New England’s handler Russel Wallack, who is having a big game with around half of the teams assists, finds cutters Alex Kapinos and David Baecher for scores, but it is not enough as Seattle pulls out the victory, 15-11.
Saturday
By Mike Berseth
It was sunny and about 90 all day with a stiff cross-wind as teams took to the fields to start their first round . The wind wrecked havoc with some teams’ offenses, but other did not seem fazed at all.
Pool A of the open division pitted Seattle, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, and Cincinnati against each other. Every game held to seed but that didn’t mean there wasn’t excitement.
The first round pitted Minnesota against Seattle and Pittsburgh against Cincinnati. Seattle started off hot against Minnesota running a mainly vertical stack with great lateral handler movement until things opened up downfield. They certainly had little trouble with the wind and minimized turns and hucked well. Minnesota came out running both horizontal stack and a German. Seattle quickly ran up the score to 8-2 at half. Minnesota came out of half firing and quickly scored two to bring it to 8-4, but Seattle then went on a run to finish the game 13-5.
The other first round game had Pittsburgh playing Cincinnati. Pittsburgh jumped out to an early lead running a patient stack with iso cutting. They were hucking well despite the stiff cross-breeze. It was half before the Minnesota/Seattle game had totaled five points. The second half was similar with Pittsburgh hucking a lot and Cincinnati struggling to move the disc effectively with the wind.
The last round of the day saw Cincinnati Flying Pig against Minnesota Superior; both playing for their first win. The wind had died a bit by this game and both teams connected on a lot more hucks than they had earlier. The Flying Pig ran mainly a horizontal stack and Minnesota concentrated on mixing up their offense between the German and ho-stack. Jake Forsman played huge for Minnesota in this game with at least four layout D’s and numerous scores. The game started with Superior going up 5-1 but the Flying Pig stormed back and it was 8-7 at half in favor of Minnesota. The second half was very close the whole way with Minnesota taking the victory 14-10.
Perhaps the most exciting game of the day was the match up of Seattle and Pittsburgh. This game showcased some of the best throws of the day with both teams dropping long bombs early and repeatedly. Seattle was led by Casey Ikeda and Jeremy Norden. They ran mainly a vertical stack with fantastic cutting and handler motion. Seattle got a break early but Pittsburgh stayed close the whole game. The cap went on and Pittsburgh brought it to 14-13. They pulled but Seattle worked up the disc patiently scoring by swinging and breaking the disc efficiently. Look for a possible rematch tomorrow!
Seattle cruised past Cincinnati, winning easily, 15-3. Pittsburgh got past Minnesota by throwing it deep early and often while Minnesota had trouble keeping possession of the disc. Pittsburgh won, 15-4.
Pool B had New England, Colorado, New Jersey, and Madison. New England finished the pool on top with solid defense, only allowing 18 scores all day. New Jersey broke seed in an exciting game against Colorado, pulling out a 15-13 victory.
The New England/Madison game showcased New England’s efficiency on offense. They were running a very patient vertical stack. They were cutting in from the back on the open side and moving it up the open side. If that option was not there they dumped and swung the disc quickly and efficiently. They did not huck a whole lot in this game but took what was given to them. Madison tried a similar offense with three handlers across and the cutters setting up vertically. There was a stiff cross-wind still and Madison struggled moving the disc across the whole field while New England capitalized on the mistakes to win 15-7.
